Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Tomorrow morning I'm going to have a 2 year-old [or at least I did when I started writing this post. It took a few weeks for me to reflect and figure out what I wanted to say.]

Two years ago, at 1:42 AM, my world was forever changed when my daughter came into the world. This is one of those handful of life moments that I will never forget and can recall with perfect clarity. This little person lay on her mother's chest, not screaming, not crying, but perfectly calm and exploring her new world. She looked directly at my wife, blinked once, before turning her gaze to me. The little girl held my eye then blinked twice, which in my mind was her way of saying, "So you're Dad? Okay, you'll do."

My life has not been the same since we met. I think my current writing situation can testify to that. I'm propped up against an over-sized stuffed blue rhinoceros, with a fuzzy owl staring at me from the side table as I barely notice the mess of Legos strewn across the living room floor. Ironically enough, after two years as a parent, it's the modern Ikea furniture from our old apartment that seems out of place, not the baby doll whose head is poking out from underneath the couch or all the Doc McStuffins pull-ups scattered throughout the room.

I've found fatherhood to be simultaneously the hardest and easiest thing I've ever done. On the one hand, being a parent is hard work. VERY hard work. Being responsible for another little human being's livelihood with all its meal times and snack times and diaper changes is challenging. More than anything, I think it's the constant awareness - always being on alert - that is truly taxing. Where is she? She's being quiet - that's no good. What did she put in her mouth? Is she taking too big of bites? She's going to pull that over on herself. No, honey, we sit down when we're on the couch. No, I don't know where you found this fork but it's mine now... The truly interesting thing is that all of my know-how on how to keep this little girl from getting herself killed in a house I foolishly thought I baby-proofed before she was born required absolutely no training. I walked into my role as Dad like a fish to water. I've noticed that my friends, who began having their children around the same time as me, have made this seamless transition into Dadhood in their own lives.

It seems God pre-programmed most of us for parental care, which is probably for the best since a steep learning curve would likely prove ill for the species. But that doesn't mean we always get it right the first time. As I sit here on the eve of my daughter's birthday, I want to reflect on three things I've learned on this journey through babyhood and toddlerdom. And here's the deal with kids: there are no do overs. It may be cliche, but I think it is a truism of most parents to say that I wish I could have this time back.

1. My kids are my life's work

Like a lot of guys, I want to make some kind of impact on the world. Leave my legacy. For me, that vision has always included my writing. (The Great American novel is still out there waiting for me.) Whether it's building a company, preserving the family business or trying to rid the world of all its social ills, a dad will have no greater opportunity for influence than with his kids. The best thing I've learned is even if I never publish a single book my entire life but my kids grow into adults who can remember their years with me fondly, I've succeeded. Since I live in a materialistic society that continually reinforces its definition of success, it is a daily challenge to keep this in perspective.

2. If I'm not acting like a fool I'm doing it wrong

My daughter and I have built our own little world that exists both at home and when we go out. Last week, we were at a store and I was playing with her on the ground with these light up frogs while we waited in line at the check out. I looked up to see annoyance on the face of the lady behind us. It saddens me that I get that look a lot on our Daddy-daughter adventures. Likely, some of these can be chalked up to over-stressed folks having bad days, but even taking that into account I still see a pattern. To me the annoyed look communicates, "Why is this idiot playing peek-a-boo with a woman's floppy hat? Why is he sword fighting with a roll of wrapping paper? Why does he every once in a while sprint with his cart down the aisle [after checking for pedestrians!]?" Because it makes her laugh. It communicates to her by example the important lesson that we should be ourselves and our relationship is never going to change no matter where we are or who's around. I'm ashamed to say that when I first began this journey I put the floppy hat back on the rack.

3. Those diapers are my privilege

No, I don't like changing diapers and I don't want to change more than I have to. I don't think anyone does. But I had this thought when changing my daughter's pull-ups, after another fruitless day of potty training. The time of changing my daughter's diapers is coming to an end, and on its most basic level this is cause for celebration. However, this signals a major impending change in our relationship. Just like when she learned how to walk and no longer wanted Dad to carry her or when she figured out how to use a spoon and began slapping my hand away when I tried to feed her, this is another step on her road to independence and eventually adulthood. One day, I will inevitably become a much more marginal figure in her life. If I'm any good at this parenting thing, we will have a lifelong close bond that is rich and rewarding for both of us, but right now is the only time when I (and her mother) get to serve as the foundation for all of my daughter's needs. There is something special and enriching, perhaps even sacred, in the act of caring for this little person when she is at her most vulnerable. The opportunity to caring in that capacity is shrinking everyday. Embrace it, don't avoid it.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Please let me know your thoughts below or share with a friend!

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

If you've been following this blog since I started it a couple of years ago, you've probably forgotten that I write a blog. My bad. I've been very negligent with this project and haven't posted anything since January, despite the New Years Resolutions I gave at the time. There are several reasons for this, most notably the busyness that you are all too familiar with in your own life. But there's another underlying reason why I haven't been an active blogger. I just don't know what to write.

I think this is a pretty common problem, yet somehow the avid bloggers I follow have pushed through this rut to find fresh, interesting content to write about regularly. I've reflected on this over the summer and I think I suffer from a classic self-deprecation that many people have when it comes to talking about themselves. What could I write about? Why would anyone be interested in what I have to say? I don't do anything remarkable. You know these people. When you meet them for the first time and try to get to know them, they describe themselves as "I'm just a..."

Stop right there.

For starters, I realized I do this! In my case, it's: "I'm just an adjunct professor." In the past, it's been: "I just work retail." I've always thought, who would ever want to read anything about me. But I also had the more important realization that I the people in my life who are "just this" or "just that" are actually pretty interesting if you talk to them. I ran into my neighbor while I was taking out the trash this summer and we struck up a conversation about what we do for a living. He "just" drives expedited freight in a cargo van. Well, I found that pretty interesting, or at least enough so that we talked for a good half hour. He probably thinks he has the most boring job in the world, but as someone who does not drive expedited freight for a living, I enjoyed hearing about the challenge of having to cross customs into Canada multiple times a day.

I'm interesting, dammit!

Now, please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying this from a place of conceit. I'm not the Dos Equis Guy. (He is, of course, far more interesting in any of us!) But I do have quite a few interesting things going on in my life that I can draw upon for inspiration to write what I think will be insightful blog posts:

I'm an historian and college professor at three colleges. I'm struggling to build a career in a time when higher education is confronting several challenges. I work in the home of one of the Presidents of the United States. I'm a writer, and one who has decided to light out for the territories into the life of an independent author. I co-edit a quarterly literary journal called The Quill. I'm a husband and have been for nearly five years. I'm a dad, and let me tell you, there is no end to what can be said about a day spent with a toddler! I'm a foodie, coffee fanatic and beer snob. I'm an avid reader who tries to get through about 50 books a year. I love to travel. The list goes on...

I think this has been the problem. I set this blog up as a blog about writing. Indeed, writing is my passion and to become a professional fiction author is still the dream, but my life is so much more than just my writing. I feel my blog should reflect more than that. Plus there are my readers to consider. I am a writer, but I don't even want to read blogs on writing all the time. It's silly to expect you who are not writers to be that interested in a blog devoted to writing either.

So coming soon: either I'm going to dive into travel a little bit and talk about my recent trip to South Carolina or I might talk about what it means to me to have a daughter about to turn 2 years old. We'll see how I'm feeling in a few days!

Sunday, January 4, 2015

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season. I was able to spend some quality time with family and seeing a 1 year-old open Christmas gifts is such a joyful experience!

Now that we're beyond the holiday season, each of us has a brand new year to look forward to. This is always an exciting time. We get to reflect on the previous year - what went right, what mistakes we made, what opportunities we missed, and how we grew. We also get to take what we learned and plot a course for the coming months.

So what can my readers expect from me?

1. First and foremost I am in the finishing stages of Witches of the Water, Book Two - The Yucatan Escapade. This is my sequel to The Golden Merra. Readers will join Wil and Albert in Mexico after the events in Book One for an adventure that expands upon (and I think surpasses) the fun of its predecessor. I am pushing to get this published by January or February.

2. I plan on holding at least one book signing this year. I have never done one of these so this will be a new experience for me. I have no details at this point on the when or where, but once I figure that out I will of course share. I'm a little nervous about this idea...meeting the reading public, face-to-face, in person....it's huge! But this is part of the writer's life so it's high time I start doing it.

3. I plan on buying an author table at either a local fair or festival, such as the Old West End Festival, or perhaps something more tailored to books specifically. Again, no details as of yet. There is a lot involved in getting a booth at one of these events like building inventory and licensing, but I think this will be well worth the investment.

4. Getting my work on store shelves. I plan on finding retail venues around the Toledo area to sell my books as a local author. I have a few locations in mind and I look forward to meeting with people in the local business community about partnering with them.

5. Last but certainly not least. I need to finish editing Book Three of the series! This will probably be a very late 2015 project, if not 2016. I love this series and I've spent about seven years working on it. I look forward to getting in done and out there so I can move on to some of my new ideas.

6. #IndieBooksBeSeen. I've recently blogged about the IndieBooksBeSeen movement I'm a part of. They have a lot of big plans for 2015 that I am excited to be a part of. They plan on making some commercials, representing indie books at book expos and getting the word about indie books to school nationwide. I look forward to wroking with them to promote the indie author community. As of today, they finished their first goal for 2015 (they didn't waste any time!): Here's a link to their new commercial.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

My infinitesimal readership has no doubt noticed my blog has been pretty neglected as of late. Well, part of that is due to my work schedule. As a newbie adjunct professor who has had to teach all brand new courses for the last year and a half, winter and summer breaks have really been my only opportunity to write anything, let a lone blog. But there is a second reason for the stagnation of this site. I suck at blogging. Some writers can wow us with prose, some earn Pulitzers for their stellar reporting and some can bare their souls online. Well, I may not be any of these but I'm certainly not the latter. Blogging does not come natural to me. I've tried to give helpful writer tips but then seemed disingenuous being that I am so new to the profession myself. I tried the book review thing for a while, and while that was fun, I'm not sure if passing judgment on writers in my exact same position is the right thing to. So, world, here I am at it again. But this time I'm not going to try to make this blog "about" something, but instead write about me, my thoughts and my feelings about this whole writing adventure. While I doubt there are a lot of people out there who want to read ramblings of me writing on me (I know I certainly wouldn't!), I believe that's okay.

So here we go...

For my first post in writing about myself (again, not my strong suit) I'm lucking out in that I have a prompt to write about. Since my last posting in August, I've joined a group, or movement if you will, called #IndieBooksBeSeen. It began as a Twitter hashtag in July to show the solidarity of indie writers everywhere and has grown by leaps and bounds over the fall to become a multifaceted group that has a ton of ideas in the works for "taking indie mainstream," as #IndieBooksBeSeen's founder, Mark Shaw (@MarktheShaw) likes to say. #IndieBooksBeSeen functions basically like a cooperative, very similar to the old farmer and electrical co-ops of the early 20th century, and the model works by these geographically separated writers pooling their talents and resources to work as a singular entity in order to work in a system designed to service large businesses at the expense of the little guy. I hope to share more news about my involvement with #IndieBooksBeSeen as I work to renew this dormant blog.

Why do I love being an Indie author? This is the prompt one of our members at #IndieBooksBeSeen has challenged us to blog about. Well, in my opinion, becoming an independent author is both the worst and best decision a writer can make, in that order. When I went down this path, and I think most independent authors can relate, I naively thought that while I probably will never sell the millions of copies necessary to break the New York Times bestseller list I could definitely sell a few hundred copies to supplement my income and maybe even eke out a living someday way down the road. Then I hit the "publish" button. Turns out there are about a million other equally ambitious authors trying to do the same thing. The net result is a lot of unstructured noise in which it is almost impossible to build a readership. This was obviously quite disheartening to my 2013 foolishly hopeful self.
Somewhere in the midst of my realization that my intrepidly American proclamation of "I'll do it my damned self" was going to be a lot harder than previously thought, I began trying to figure out if I had made a mistake. In researching the book industry, I discovered, quite to my surprise, that the life of a traditionally published author was in reality not much better than being an indie author. Unless I became outlandishly successful (or knew somebody influential at a publishing firm which I do not) I would likely to get little to know support for promoting my book. Furthermore, unless you're Stephen King or J.K. Rowling with enough clout to dictate terms, authors are by and large human commodities who sign away almost all ownership of their work to the publishing company. This is the first reason I love being an indie author. My book is my book. The story is the story I want to tell, not the story an exec thinks will sell. If my book ever gets turned into audio or picked up by a large retailer, I'm involved in the process. Finally as an indie author, I, the person who actually wrote the book, make a respectful percentage of every sale as opposed to the traditional system where the author gets table scraps of 5-10% from which they need to pay their agent his/her cut. This sense of ownership over my creation is far more valuable than anything I would make in a large book contract.

The second reason I love being indie did not exist a year ago. Before #IndieBooksBeSeen, we were all, for the most part, trying to out yell each other for readers' attention. It was a very lonely sea to be a part of. But now because of #IndieBooksBeSeen and I think a growing sense of comradery among independents, there is a vibrant and growing community. I have made like-minded acquaintances along my journey as an indie author, people I want to see succeed and who I know want the same for me. As we grow as a voice and our tweets increasingly grow into video Skype conferences and eventually face-to-face conventions, I wholeheartedly expect these relationships to grow into literary friendships. And that is one thing you just can't put a price on.
If you're interested in hearing why other authors love being indie, visit:
https://clrozelle.wordpress.com/2014/12/08/10-things-that-suck-and-rock-about-being-an-indie-author-part-1/

Thursday, July 31, 2014

The Wizard in My Window by J. David Clarke is slightly outside of my normal fare for reading. There are a lot of people who live and breathe YA (Young Adult), particular YA Fantasy. I am not one of those people. I feel it takes a lot to stand out in such a saturated genre. Now that I've given my disclaimer, let me begin by saying that The Wizard in My Window does indeed stand out.

The short novel/long novella follows the Collier Family as they move into their new home. While his elder 15-year-old sister Nicole is too busy in her world of teenage angst, Timothy claims the upstairs room with a peculiar mark in the window. That mark is, you guessed it, in the shape of a wizard. It doesn't take much time at all before a magical spell book called the Magus Liber appears followed my a new relic each day. As the kids learn what these artifacts are capable of (and begin playing with them in properly reckless youth fashion), ancient beings are drawn to its power.

Where this book excels is in its narrative. It is refreshingly nonlinear and takes a couple of unexpected sharp turns during the adventure. One of my personal pet peeves with the YA fantasy genre is its overuse of the coming-of-age template. I was happy to see Clarke exercised some real creativity in breaking this mold. I was happy to say at about three-quarters of the way through, that I couldn't tell exactly where the story would end up. The main characters in this story are also very well defined, and Clarke did a good job giving each Collier (even the baby) a distinct personality.

The Wizard in My Window could use a little improvement, in my opinion, with character dialogue. Sometimes what the characters have to say is somewhat pedestrian, perhaps bordering on corny. This is most noticeable, I think, with the book's villains. My second issue has to deal with the way the characters expressed emotion. Sometimes characters yell in ALL CAPS or with multiple exclamation marks. This is particularly true from Nicole. I found it to be somewhat distracting.

Overall, The Wizard in My Window is an entertaining, fast read. It's a good choice for young adults and big adults alike.

My Books

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About Me

Kevin Moore is a working writer and a professor of history, humanities and philosophy. His published work includes The Golden Merra, Seven Out, Waves and War, Sorrow and Demons and My Lovely Wife, Edith. Kevin is co-editor of The Quill (www.facebook.com/TheQuillToledo - @TheQuillToledo), a journal for fiction and poetry in Northwest Ohio, and he is a freelance writer. He lives near Toledo, Ohio with his wife and daughter.